Welcome to a new episode of English Vocabulary Booster.
My name is Lara and I'm a SALSA-certified English teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new English words or expressions, so that you too can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning!
And we're back again.
This week's topic is food.
Let's begin with the story.
Last night, I came home after a long day at work.
I decided to try a new French recipe.
It was quite complicated, so it took me two hours to cook.
I quickly set the table and put the dish in the middle.
By the time I sat at the dinner table with my husband and my kid, I was so hungry.
I quickly helped myself to some of this delicious dish and wolfed it down in 30 seconds.
Then he looked at my husband's plate.
He hadn't even touched the food.
So I asked him what was wrong and he said he didn't want to eat it because there was too much cheese in the dish.
And cheese doesn't agree with him.
So he couldn't have any.
And then I looked over to my kid's plate, only to find out that he had only picked at his food and most of it was still there.
Well, long story short, it was almost 11 p.m. when we sent out for some pizza.
Okay, so let's take a look at today's words and let's begin with word number one, help yourself to.
I quickly helped myself to some of this delicious dish.
So if you help yourself to some food, Does somebody put the food on your plate for you or do you put it yourself?
Well, if you help yourself to food, that means that you take the food and you put it on your plate.
And in which place you're more likely to help yourself to some food?
Is it a regular restaurant or the buffet?
Well, it's the buffet.
Because of the buffet, you have to get up.
You go to where all the food is, you decide which food you want, which food you don't want, and then you put it on your plate.
You help yourself to it.
And, um, normally when somebody cooks at your place at home, what do you do?
Is it the person who cooked that serves you, or do you help yourself to whatever food you want, however much food you want?
Um, I think it depends on where I am.
If I have to think back to my childhood, I would say normally somebody else would serve the food and so I wouldn't help myself to it.
And then maybe they would ask me like, is this okay?
Do you want more?
Do you want less?
But yeah, I normally wouldn't help myself to food.
Word number two, wolf down.
And wolfed it down in 30 seconds.
So if you wolf something down, do you eat quickly or slowly?
Well, obviously you eat it quickly, just like a wolf.
It's super fast, you know.
And do you normally wolf down your food or do you take your time to eat it?
Well, unfortunately, I have to admit that I always wolf my food down.
I don't know why.
It's something that I really – I don't pay attention to it.
I wish I could change it.
And I normally realize only after having finished my meal.
I'm like oh wow I – ate this entire thing in like 30 seconds.
I wolfed it down.
And I wish I could enjoy food a little more, so that you know I could take a little more time eating it.
But unfortunately, nope, I wolfed down my food.
Word number three, not agree with.
Cheese doesn't agree with me.
All right.
In this case, you're not having a fight with the cheese.
All right.
This is another type of disagreement.
So if a food doesn't agree with you, does it make you feel good or does it make you feel sick after eating it?
Well, normally if a food doesn't agree with you, it makes you feel sick.
And which of these foods sometimes does not agree with people?
Milk, rice, or spicy food?
Again, which do not agree with people sometimes?
Not all the time, but sometimes.
Milk, rice, or spicy food?
Well, milk sometimes doesn't agree with people.
There's people that are lactose intolerant, for example.
And spicy food also sometimes doesn't agree with people.
Maybe it could give them some stomach issues or something like that.
But rice, yeah, rice normally agrees with people.
It's something that's easily digestible, so it's not a problem for the body.
And are there any foods that do not agree with you?
And bear in mind that I'm not talking about foods that you don't like.
I'm talking about foods that cause some discomfort to your body.
I have to say, I think normally, in general, I don't have any problem with with specific foods.
But I have noticed that sometimes cucumbers do not agree with me.
For some reason, I like it.
But if I eat cucumbers, then I have a hard time digesting it.
And so if I can, I try to avoid cucumbers because it doesn't, cucumbers don't agree with me.
Word number four, pick at.
He had only picked at his food.
So if you only pick at the food that you have on your plate, do you eat a lot of it or only a little bit?
Well, if you only pick at the food that you have on your plate, then you only eat a small part of it.
And what are some of the reasons for picking at your food?
Well, I can think of a few.
For example, imagine that you are, I don't know, you don't like what you have on your plate.
Or imagine you're just in a bad mood and you don't feel like eating.
You just had a fight with a person that's in front of you, that's sitting across from you at the table.
And she's like, yeah, I don't really want to eat right now.
So you pick at your food.
Maybe you put a little bit in your mouth and then you put the fork down and you kind of play with your food a little bit.
So that's pecking at your food.
So can you think of the last time you pecked at your food?
And where were you?
And why did you do it?
I can't think of the last time I pecked at my food because I
Normally, if I have something on my plate, I will eat it.
Maybe when I was a child, it was more common for me to do it, especially during lunchtime at school.
A lot of times, I don't know when they would serve us vegetables.
We were kind of forced to eat it.
So our teachers told us that we had to.
Yeah.
Yeah, but a lot of times I didn't want to.
I just wasn't hungry or something.
So I would play with it.
I would pick at it, maybe eat one or two, and then leave the rest on the plate.
Word number five, the last one, send out for.
It was almost 11 p.m. what we sent out for some pizza.
So if you send out for food, do you leave your home or not?
Well, no.
If you stand out for food, you stay at home.
You get to stay in your pajama, pants or whatever.
You're wearing your comfy clothes and you just stay there.
And who do you call if you want to stand out for food?
Well, There's lots and lots of different options nowadays if you want to stand out for food.
You could, for example, just call a restaurant, or there's lots of other apps, like Uber Eats is one of the most popular ones where you just give them a call or even just text them, select on the app what you want and you stand out for food.
So when was the last time that you stand out for food and what did you eat?
So the last time I sent out for food, that was what?
Like not last night, but yeah, the night before.
And we sent out for some – I'm not even sure what kind of cuisine that was.
It was more like – I think it was an Asian restaurant.
So yeah, we basically – I had some chicken with rice and stuff like that.
And it was pretty quick.
It was good.
The food was good.
I was happy with it.
Warm.
So yeah, no problems with that.
That's the last time that I stamped out for food.
And that is it for today.
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Have a great day.